Many individuals add up to strong “people-power!”

July 25, 2018 GlenAnderson Examples of Parallax Views, Nonviolence (Also see Peace, Conflict Resolution, Organizing & Activism), Organizing & Activism (Also see Nonviolence, Outreach), Our Current Political Crisis (in addition to Trump and Trumpism), Peace (See Foreign Policy and specific nations and regions -- and ALSO see Military Spending and Nuclear Weapons) 0

I enjoy sharing with people a story I heard about 40 years ago.  We need to internalize this story’s message, let it inspire us to persist in organizing nonviolent grassroots movements for peace, human rights, the climate, and so forth — and share this story with other people.

Here is the story:

Two birds were enjoying a conversation while perched on a branch.  One of them mentioned that each individual snowflake weighs practically nothing.  A snowflake can land on a branch, and the branch does not move at all.  Another snowflake can land without the branch noticing it.  And another and another….

This bird said that eventually one snowflake that lands on the branch becomes enough to break the branch completely off from the tree.  That snowflake had weighed practically nothing — as had each of the individual snowflakes that had landed before — but the cumulative weight was enough to break the branch off.

The other bird reflected on this story and concluded that although each of us might be a small individual, cumulatively, our “people-power” adds up to a significant weight.  If we want to achieve peace, more people need to join together.

 

 

 

About GlenAnderson 1437 Articles
Since the late 1960s Glen Anderson has devoted his life to working as a volunteer for peace, nonviolence, social justice, and progressive political issues. He has worked through many existing organizations and started several. Over the years he has worked especially for such wide-ranging goals as making peace with Vietnam, eliminating nuclear weapons, converting from a military economy to a peacetime economy, abolishing the death penalty, promoting nonviolence at all levels throughout society, and helping people organize and strategize for grassroots movements to solve many kinds of problems. He writes, speaks, and conducts training workshops on a wide variety of topics. Since 1987 he has produced and hosted a one-hour cable TV interview program on many kinds of issues. Since 2017 he has blogged at https://parallaxperspectives.org He lives in Lacey near Olympia WA. You can reach him at (360) 491-9093 glen@parallaxperspectives.org